Harry N. Abrams Acquires Jon J Muth's Graphic Novel, "M"

New York, NY – Harry N. Abrams announced today that they will publish Jon J Muth's graphic novel, entitled M , under the Abrams imprint. M is a graphic novel based on the 1931 Fritz Lang film of the same name. The book was acquired by Abrams Senior Editor Charles Kochman from agent Allen Spiegel at Allen Spiegel Fine Arts. The deal gives Abrams world rights. M is slated to be published in the spring of 2008 as a hardcover, packaged with a bonus DVD of Fritz Lang's original classic thriller.

Behind every great suspense thriller lurks the shadow of M . In M, Fritz Lang's first sound film, Peter Lorre delivers a haunting performance as a serial killer–a whistling pedophile hunted by the police and brought to trial by the forces of the Berlin underworld. In 1990, a young artist, Jon J Muth, continued his rise in the comic book industry by adapting the story into four comics published by Eclipse Comics. Long out of print, they have never been collected together before.

Jon J Muth's watercolor art has been called "quietly life-changing" by The New York Times . He is the author and artist of the bestselling picture books Zen Shorts ; The Three Questions as well as a Gold Medal winner from the Society of Illustrators for his illustrations in Come On, Rain! In 2005 he illustrated A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy, which was a national bestseller.

Michael Jacobs, President and CEO of Harry N. Abrams , commented,"Jon is an amazingly talented artist and illustrator whose work I've long admired.Adding Jon to Abrams' growing list ofgraphic artists is both a pleasure anda privilege as wellas a testament to our continuing commitment to publishing the best visual books we can make."

Muth has this to say about why he is choosing Abrams to publish M: "Michael Jacobs was an early supporter of my work in children's books at Scholastic, so it's great to have a chance to work together on a book for an older audience. Charlie Kochman and I are old friends. He has done a lot to bring graphic novels into their own. M is probably the most fully realized project I have done in comics and I'm very happy that M is going to be published in a beautiful Abrams edition."

Kochman adds, "Jon and I worked together back in 1999. I was an editor at DC Comics, and he illustrated Batman's Dark Secret . The four-issue graphic novel M was the first work of his I ever saw, and is also one of my favorite movies. I am incredibly honored to bring this series back into print as a collected edition and introduce this work to a new generation of his fans."